08.25.03

As I give this instalment its final stir with the Runcible Spoon, it's not long to the World SF Convention in Toronto. I hope to see some of you there....

Edward Bryant had a quadruple heart bypass on 11 August. He was off the ventilator and talking by the next day, and was expected to be out of intensive care very shortly after. 'If you wish to send cards, please send them to his home address: 2103 W. 28th Ave, Denver, CO 80211, USA.'

World Fantasy Award finalists for 2002 work have been announced:

   Novel

     Jeffrey Ford, The Portrait of Mrs Charbuque

     Gregory Frost, Fitcher's Brides

     Graham Joyce, The Facts of Life

     Patricia A.McKillip, Ombria in Shadow

     China Miéville, The Scar

   Novella

     Charles de Lint, Seven Wild Sisters

     Paul Di Filippo, A Year in the Linear City

     Neil Gaiman, Coraline

     Elizabeth Hand, 'The Least Trumps'

     Zoran Zivkovic, 'The Library'

   For further categories, see the complete ballot at http://www.worldfantasy.org/awards/.

Brian Aldiss provides a book report: 'The Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, reveals that he reads SF with respect. See his new book, Our Final Century. It's something like a work of SF itself. Quoted are greats like Greg Benford, David Brin, Phil Dick — oh, and H.G. Wells. Book is a cheery beach read — as long as you can find a stony enough beach.'

R.I.P. William Woolfolk (1917-2003), US novelist and TV writer who as Bill Woolfolk scripted many 1940s comics (including Superman and Batman for DC) and created the character Plastic Man, died on 20 July; he was 86. He liked to boast of having coined Captain Marvel's famous ejaculation, 'Holey Moley!'

Remembering Robert L. Forward (who died last September): the Benford twins, Gregory and James, have published an obituary for him in Physics Today, August 2003.

Thog's Masterclass. Eyeballs in the Sky Dept. 'Anita's brown, penetrating eyes never left David's face, except to pour cups of tea.' Aerostatics Dept. 'The vultures, aware of this supernatural transformation, halted in their flight.' (both Frank Corsaro, Kunma, 2003)

David Langford is an author and a gentleman. His newsletter, Ansible, is the essential SF-insider sourcebook of wit and incongruity. His most recent books are Different Kinds of Darkness, a new short-story collection of horror, SF, and fantasy, Up Through an Empty House of Stars: Reviews and Essays 1980-2002, 100 pieces of Langfordian genre commentary, and He Do the Time Police in Different Voices, a short-story collection that brings together, all of Dave's SF parodies and pastiches. (This is a scary thought. Are you ready to laugh that hard?)

Dave lives in Reading, England with his wife Hazel, 25,000 books, and a few dozen Hugo awards. He continues to add books and Hugos.